Thea followed in Clemiticus' footsteps, exiting the tavern as Skull City’s new rising star. The sun had fallen below the horizon, allowing streetlamps to light up the city before them. A crowd had formed behind the recently awarded bard. New fans were making every attempt to catch his attention as he walked down a cobblestone path. Thea wondered if Melly’s eyes hurt from all the rolling they were performing. Each time a doting fan fell over themselves before the bard, she repeated the action.

Thea also noticed many patrons singing the chorus of Clem’s song as they followed the party between the tall buildings.

“This won’t be the last we hear of this song, will it?” Melly asked annoyed. Her hunter friends had waved Melly goodbye for the time being. They had made plans to increase her hunting potential and finding information about flying magical creatures.

“Excuse me missy?” Clemiticus said. “I won the triangle thingy, didn’t I?”

Thea laughed, “By cheating!”

Clemiticus nodded curtly. “Yeah, but I came up with the different words though.”

Thea wasn’t sure if she liked the altered lyrics. The original was catchier but would have made zero sense in this world. In the end, she realised that the lyrical modification wasn’t the biggest issue.

“Clem…” Thea said.

“Yeah?”

“Where did the music come from?” she asked. The plastic controller he had used shouldn’t have produced any sound at all.

“Oh, that?” Clemiticus replied with a chuckle. “When I first rocked up to the tavern, I asked Hubert if he had any spare instruments lying around. He told me no, but there’s a lost and found out back, so I checked it out.”

Clemiticus broke out into a wide grin.

“And low and behold there it was. A guitar shaped controller!”

“What’s a guitar?” asked Melly.

“A lute,” replied Thea who then scrunched up her face, “But where did the sound come from?”

Clemiticus clicked his fingers as Fairy materialised on the bard’s shoulder. “Each time I press a button...” Clemiticus jabbed a thumb at the azure creature, “this guy makes a sound. My luck stat turns all those incoherent notes into an actual song.”

Thea shook her head as she fought feebly to stop from laughing. “See I told you, cheating!”

They both laughed together while the view of their tall wagon appeared ahead of them. The magical vessel had been unceremoniously parked in the dead centre of the city.

Sprawling markets of every type of wares imaginable surrounded them, as a sea of citizens went about their business. Sitting atop the wagon was Nuecus, who eyed the crowd with a suspicion only a senile delinquent could muster.

Melly waved. She tried to get the old thaumaturge’s attention but failed dismally.

“Oi!” Clemiticus shouted.

A flash of water and a flick of a tail let them know that their miniature whale friend accompanied Nuecus on top of the wagon. Dog was currently happily playing with some of the local children. Giggles rang out over the crowd as the children yelled at the sodden marvel.

“Water! More water!” they yelled as one.

Dog obliged by spraying the children, which turned to mist, shimmering in the light cast by the streetlamps. Thea couldn't help but admire Dog’s little aquatic trick.

“Dog! Buddy!” Clemiticus shouted.

The whale turned around like lightning, his eyes brimming with joy. The tiny whale shot towards Clem and tackled him in the chest, knocking the bard over.

“WOAH there, matey!” Clem said, laughing as an ocean drenched him completely.

“My friend has returned!” Dog cheered. “Yay!”

Thea left the two boys to have their bromance moment and climbed into the wagon. It was time for her to enact her plan. Her excitement was bubbling.

Thanks to the jumping puzzle she completed, Thea had a new schematic that could be added to her book. Derrick had told her earlier in the day that if we wished to receive his help, she would have to wait until sundown. That would give the dwarf enough time to sort all the new potential parts he and Nuecus had gathered from the garbage heap.

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Thea almost skipped as she made her way into the deep recesses of the magical wagon and onwards to the storage facility. There she found the dwarf busily playing with his multi tool.

“Hey D!” Thea said.

Derrick gave her a confused look. “Don’t call me that!”

“Fiiiine.”

“Anyway, perfect timing. I just finished adjusting my basic tool kit, so we will be able to make some fine adjustments to your new little project.”

Thea brightened. “Can we start straight away?”

Derrick nodded, then pointed towards a work bench.

“Flop your book on top of there and get out the guide to turrets.”

Thea followed the instructions and laid her book beside the jumping puzzle prize. Derrick flipped open the tomes, inspecting the two items. He shrugged, then tugging at the guide, smashed it into the other book. Thea flinched as the force of the dwarf slammed onto the workbench. She was about to yell at him when the guide dissolved and appeared on the pages of her book.

“There we go.” Derrick said.

“Um, thanks I guess?”

“You’re welcome!”

Thea watched the pages of her book shimmer as the schematic of a turret appeared on the open page:

Turret level 1.

Quickly construct a saved turret design to fight for you for five minutes. (Max weight 100 pounds)

Cool down five minutes.

Total units at one time, one.

Total modes for a unit, three.

Total modes at one time, one.

Thea read over the instructions and gave the dwarf a mischievous grin. “Shall we?”

The tinker whipped out a large blue sheet of paper and a pencil. “Ok, first of all, you will need a steady base. Any structure’s only as good as the foundations they are built on. So, you will need something that can stand up in any situation.”

“Wide base, got it!” Thea said.

“Then you will need a central structure with a decently stable centre of gravity. Like this.”

The dwarf drew a stubby block that stood vertical on a wide board, supported by angled sections of wood.

“A melee object would be pretty much useless at this size. As the power required to hit something with enough force would also be incredibly heavy. Since your max is a hundred pounds, a ranged weapon would be preferable.”

Thea and Derrick brainstormed a bunch of potential ideas and finally came up with three gadgets. First was a simple net shooting apparatus that would allow them to catch food, or slow down enemies in small group fights.

The second was an auto-sling that could fling a rock accurately in any direction with an automatic reload device. The final turret was what Thea had called the ‘BFB mode’. It was a turret that’s equipped with a sizeable explosive just in case if they needed to go to extremes.

“A big badda boomb!” Thea said.

“We only need one thing for the first two turrets.” Derrick said.

“Yeah?”

Derrick grabbed his multi-tool and flipped through all the functions until he found the button to release items from the void storage.

“I got this baby from Bluehill town!”

Thea watched in awe as a glistening crystalline object fell onto the workbench and rolled to a stop.

“We can use Scarnoot’s first girlfriend to power the optics of your turrets.”

Once the design was completed, they built the first prototype and connected it with Thea’s book. Then it was time to attempt her first summon.

“Summon turret! Net mode!” Thea shouted.

Instantly, a short wooden contraption appeared with a long cylindrical gizmo. It whirled into action and promptly shot a large net over Derrick.

“Perfect!” Thea shouted.

“Not quite,” replied the disgruntled dwarf, buried under a thick net. “We will need to calibrate the potential target parameters.”

“So, it can tell friend from foe?”

“Exactly!” replied Derrick.

They hurriedly constructed a target that looked just like a wooden Merkin. Once Derrick fiddled with the parameters, they waited for the remaining cooldown to end and tried once more.

Beep.

“It’s ready!” Thea shouted, “Summon turret! Net mode!”

The small turret appeared once more and turned towards the monster target. The projectile flew forwards and completely covered the wooden threat in a dense net.

“Too bad it’s only got one use.” Thea sighed.

Derrick pointed at the section of Thea’s book that read: level one. “If I have learnt anything from following Clemiticus, it is that if there're levels, there’s opportunity to increase one proficiency.”

Thea smiled and nodded. “Right you are.”

“Now let’s wait out the cool down and try out number 2?”

“Only if you are sure about the parameters,” Thea replied. “I don’t want to be a potential target.”

Derrick waved off her concerns and pulled out his multi-tool to tweak the crystalline optics atop the second turret.

A sound of chirping and footsteps announced the arrival of Clemiticus as he wandered into the makeshift workshop.

“Oh, great you’re here!” Thea shouted. “Your just in time to witness turret number two.”

“Yeah? Awesome! I just tucked Dog into bed.”

Derrick flipped over a thick table and said, “We should be safe, but just in case. How about we hide behind here!”

Clemiticus followed the squatting tinkerer as Thea got into position, as she called out, “Summon turret! Sling mode!”

The second turret appeared on the other side of the table with a long rope sling and a bucket of rocks. A tiny claw collected a stone from the bucket and placed it into the pouch. The turret then whirled into action, searching for its first potential target.

Skittles, the tiny red bird, flew above the contraption in fascination as the turret turned skywards. The sling whipped as the clasp flew open.

Bing!

“Skittles, the parrot has died!” Fairy reported.

Thea gave Derrick a scowl. Clemiticus looked bemused.

“I thought you calibrated the damn thing!” Thea shouted.

“I did!” Derrick cried defensively.

The turret then turned towards the wooden monster target, reset, and slung a stone at its head. The rapid reloading potential was impressive, its aim deadly.

“I only loaded the bucket with a few rocks. It should be out in three, two, one!” Derrick counted as the turret whirled for the last time and silently waited for the claw to pick up its next projectile.

“Alright! I will recalibrate the turret to count the pets as friendly targets as well!”

“And then?” Clemiticus asked.

“A big badda boomb!” Thea answered.